Number: 2477
Proto-Semitic: *mVrVʔ-
Meaning: bull
Akkadian: mīru 'young bull' SB [CAD m2 109], 'Zuchtstier' OB, SB [AHw. 658]; mīrtu 'cow' OB [CAD m2 109], 'Zuchtkuh' [AHw. 658]. While the masculine form is known mostly from lexical lists, the fem. parallel is known also from an OB economic text (UCP 10 78 No. 3:14: 1 sūt ana mīrti 'one seah for a cow').
Hebrew: mǝrī(ʔ) 'fatted steer' [KB 635]. Not quite reliable since the Hbr. form is unanimously regar- ded as derived from the verbal root mrʔ 'to be fat' in Hebrais- tic literature (v. [BDB 597], [KB 635]). This derivation, though not impossible, is not without obstactes: the verbal root mrʔ is virtually unattested in Hbr. whereas no Biblical passage expli- citly suggests that m. was a fat (or fatted) animal. Admittedly, the verb mrʔ (Hip.) 'to fatten' and the derived noun hamrāʔā are known form post-Biblical Hebrew ([Ja 842, 356]) as well as from Ugaritic (applied to oxen as well as other houshold animals, [DLU 288]). Interestingly enough, derivation from the widely used verbal root marû is not suggested for the Akk. terms in either [AHw.] or [CAD]. One wonders whether the meaning 'calf' attested for Akk. mūru is somehow connected with mīru.
